It pains me that the right has affected the way I consider candidates...

[vi5]

It used to be for the democratic primary I would simply pick the person whose beliefs most closely mirrored mine and more often than not that person at the very least won the nomination if not the General Election. But since dems still controlled congress there was less of the feeling of overwhelming dread.

Now, my wife and I are talking today and basing our votes on which candidate would be able to be smeared the LEAST.

Honestly, what kind of way is this to be?

In the past I would have just looked at Kerry and his history as a war hero and his great liberal voting record (IWR excluded) and it would have been a no brainer. Now I can only look at him and imagine him getting "Gored" as a long winded intellectual (how dare they make intelligence a bad thing) and losing in November.

In the past I would have looked at Edwards idealism and down home charm and charisma and been totally happy to vote for him. Now I just hear the "trial lawyer" and inexperienced smears in my head and how they will impact him come November.

In the past I would have looked at Dean's outsider scrappiness and been wowed by it the same way I was with Clinton. Now I just hear all the "Vermont liberal" smears in my head, and the "Dean Angry" meme haunting him come November.

As it stands I am still so ridiculously undecided, but will be basing my vote only on who can best beat Bush and nothing else. But it sucks that I have been made to feel in my own country that if I consider anything less than electability and the person I choose loses in November, that the fate of the free world and my entire country rests in the balance.

[imhotep]

1. you should

stay home and hide under the sheets.
Any candidate will be smeared by republicans.
This election is too important to pick our candidate out of fear.

[bearfartinthewoods]

2. Edwards as trial lawyer

when people hear the type of suits and plaintive he has taken on, it will erase the trial lawyer meme and replace it with a people's champion logo. plus he has plans for eliminating frivolous lawsuits involving zinging the problematic lawyers who clog the system with silliness without repressing the rights of the people who most need the help of the courts.

[Racenut20]

3. You have hit the nail on the head

The Ronald Reagan theory towards the conservatives who continued to lose elections and stand by their principles, was you have to win first, then invoke the principles.

The 04 election points out in spades, that we Democrats have got to stop worrying about the Presidency so much and focus on the Congress.

The stuff the House of Representatives have been cramming through in the wee hours is unbelievable. Only a Democratic presence in the Senate has kept all that crap from becoming law, and what did slip through is a disaster to the Country in the ensuing years.

No need to even think about what is happening in the Court appointments. It gives me a headache.

If we stop and think what grass roots movements have been able to accomplish.... women sufferage...(ok, prohibition also...but but) and things like that that started at the bottom would never have come from the top.

Elect them all again and watch what happens to Social Security, the GI Bill, Education, Health Care...All the items that Democrats fight for will be lost in the next disasterous four years.

[AP]

4. I don't think these considerations are things that are new in politics.

It has always been the case that people have to imagine the complete nexus of their candidate's logic: does the candidate's message work for ME personally?; does it work for the greatest number of Americans?; does it COMPARE well the the opponents'?; does it CONTRAST well to the opponents'?'; is the candidtate from the right REGION of the country to win?; is the candidate's BIOGRAPHY the biography of a winner?

There is nothing new in asking all these questions. If there weren't, Democrats and Republicans would alwyas run candidates like Goldwater, Gore, Jesse Jackson, Warren Beatty, Paul Tsongas, Paul Simon, etc. And candidates like JFK, Reagan, and Clinton would never see the light of day.